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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: press · squash · wound · saw · ball · kid · straw · field

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. field — for sport
  4. ball — a dance
  5. wound — an injury
  6. squash — the sport
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. press — a publisher
  9. field — farmland
  10. kid — child
  11. saw — the tool
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. saw — the tool
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. squash — to crush
  18. press — newspapers
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. field — a subject
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. press — to push
  23. ball — a great time
  24. kid — to tease

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com